Any way good for you Chris, congrats to Masha for making yet another Wimby final

There's only me and an occasional post from Monster who posts in this thread Falcon so I'm always spamming this thread and when Maria's at a Grand Slam and doing well this thread piles up the posts as does my count when Maria and my girls are doing playing

And thanks soooo much Falcon I am soooooo ahppy, excited and relieved for Maria right now after coming so near to the end and just simply cannot wait for Saturday now, its going to be a very exciting and nervous next 40 hours but we'll soon be there and only 1 thing could make me happier now and that's a 2nd Wimbledon title and a 4th Career Grand Slam title for Maria

So tomorrow is the day Maria gets a chance to complete her comeback from all the injuries in the best possible way and look to get her 2nd Wimbledon title and 4th Grand Slam title in total as she takes on Czeck Petra Kvitova at 2pm on Centre Court.

Devastation doesn't even begin to tell the story But so so proud for Maria to have come back from everything she has been through and she'll keep coming back to achieve more.

That was not a very good performance from Maria overall, she just wasn't able to take her chances today and when she had plenty of those in the 2nd set that was where the match went. Kvitova obviously had a big part in that with the way she served at times and the way she hit those groundies but like 4/3 Kvitova serving 2nd set Maria hits 3 straight returns long. That's never Maria, that's something she can always count on but it just wasn't to be today. The serve of both players was always going to be under threat today with such good returners but after Maria immediately broke Kvitova at the start of the match it was imperative she held that next game to really keep Kvitova down at the start but she didn't and Kvitova got into the match. From that point on Kvitova really grew whereas Maria struggled with that lefty serve. But Kvitova was hardly missing a ball out there so it was the 2nd set that was the most frustrating as Kvitova began missing a few easier ones but Maria couldn't put her foot down enough to get in front in that set and really put Kvitova on the backfoot. Breaking back those 2-3 times but failing to hold was the difference here and it allowed Kvitova to just keep getting back in front and then to close the match out.

I'm just soo soo soo proud of Maria though to have come back from everything, to have wanted it enough to come back when she could easily have walked away when she has so much in her life and set up forever, and to have put herself in this sort of position again at the biggest tournaments. Maria's 1 of the biggest competitors you'll ever see so she will want to come back strong from this and that'll start on the preactice courts after a few days rest. I feel absolutely devastated for Maria though as this is the 1 she loves most and to have won it again after the shoulder surgery would have meant more than anything to her. I'm absolutely devastated right now and talking about it here isn't going to help really.

Maria's run at Wimbledon is over as she lost 3-6 4-6 to No.8 seed Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic in the final in 1 hour and 25 minutes.

Maria won the toss at the net before the match and elected to receive, and she broke for a 1-0 lead as Kvitova missed three forehands. Maria's serve was then tested for the first time in the next game, and Maria was broken when she hit a forehand long. Maria had a chance to break in the next game but was unable to take it. A few games later Kvitova broke Maria to lead 4-2 when Maria double-faulted. Both players held their serves in the next two service games and then Kvitova held her serve to take the set 6-3.

Kvitova took a 2-0 in the second set then Maria came back to level the set 2-2. The next three game were breaks of serve and then Kvitova held her serve to love to take the championship.

When the new WTA rankings are released on Monday, Maria moves up to No.5 with 6141 points.

Maria's next tournament is the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford beginning on July 25th.

• Eighth seed powers to 6-3, 6-4 victory over former champion• Czech pounces on weak service game to win first grand slam

Petra Kvitova found the near-perfect mix of power, spin and patience to blow Maria Sharapova off Centre Court in a curiously uneven Wimbledon final and announce what might be a new age in women's tennis.

The Czech, seeded eighth, varied her shot-making and her serve according to circumstance and saved her single ace for the final, echoing shot after an hour and 25 minutes to win 6-3, 6-4.

Kvitova is the first left-hander to win the title since her Czech compatriot Martina Navratilova 21 years ago (just a few months after Kvitova was born), and brings a similar muscular artistry to her tennis.

She is not an elegant player, but she hits with purpose and this might not be the last time she raises the Venus Rosenwater plate above her head. She will return as a champion to fear.

Sharapova fought, as she does, but to little avail against a tide of measured ground strokes, delicately placed to tease, and a serve unlike others she has had to deal with the past fortnight.

The beauty of Sharapova goes beyond her long legs and blonde hair. Her tennis is engaged with a silken movement that leads to precision across the disciplines but, when it mattered most, those connected elements deserted her for the second time in three days and the title was gone before the sweat had left her lovely brow.

She served 13 double faults and hit 18 unforced errors in just 19 games getting past the booming serve of the German Sabine Lisicki in the semi-finals on Thursday. On Saturdayshe cut the free points on her serve to six, with 12 self-made mistakes – still not good enough.

If two games summed up the state of women's tennis, it might be those that got this final underway. Neither held. Two breaks in the space of a few minutes at the very start of the final of a major was somehow no surprise at all (although it has not happened here since 2006), because that, paradoxically, is the result of improved strength and physicality that has transformed the women's game beyond recognition over the past couple of decades.

After the ragged start, they held a serve apiece to restore equilibrium but there was rarely a sense that the power of the serve – central to the structure of the men's game, less so on what used to be called the distaff side – mattered, apart from its bottom-line efficiency.

Sharapova, though, stuck to orthodoxy. Admirably and foolishly, perhaps, she resisted the temptation to drag back on the power in search of the service box on the other side of a net that at times must have looked like a fishing net.

Kvitova went for guile, on both her wickedly spinning left-handed serve, and a sliced backhand that tormented Sharapova. On top of that arrived occasional belters on both wings.

Two double-faults in a row and Sharapova dropped serve again to go 2-4 down. Certainly, her injuries have blighted her wonderful tennis and it is a monument to her courage that she has put them behind her, but here that nexus between muscle and mind was wretchedly shredded.

Next opportunity she had to serve, she double-faulted again and we knew there would be no graceful exit from her dilemma.

There was nothing she could do to stop Kvitova taking the first set, serving out to love and looking serene in her own way. Sharapova had come through six matches without dropping serve and now was getting hammered by an opponent who knew no fear, a player on her first visit to a final at Wimbledon.

At just that time on Saturday, Lisicki, who'd bashed her big serve up against Sharapova in vain, was partnering Sam Stosur, another big hitter, to victory in the doubles semi-final.

All alone in the glare of the singles court, though, Sharapova continued to suffer. Kvitova broke instantly. She was now hitting her ground strokes harder than some of either player's serves, taking the dynamic of the game into uncharted areas.

As Kvitova upped the pace of her serve, Sharapova retreated a foot or two behind the baseline and got herself a break through a sublime lob off an abysmally weak forehand at the net by the Czech for 2-2 and renewed hope.

Kvitova gifted her a break point in the sixth game with a forehand as careless as Andy Murray's in the second set on Friday against Rafa Nadal; that did for the Scot – and it cost Kvitova her ascendancy here.

Back on level terms, Sharapova immediately hit another double fault. She saved the first of two break points but, under a sustained assault, hit wide and Kvitova was within sight of the prize.

Sharapova held to love, to invite false hope of a fightback. Kvitova, serving for the match, sealed it with her only ace, bang down the middle.

"You're seeing a really, really special talent," John McEnroe reckoned.

Maria Sharapova believes new Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova will capture more grand slam titles, even in the teeth of fierce competition from big-hitters like the Williams sisters and Kim Clijsters.

Kvitova became just the third Czech woman to win Wimbledon after nine-time champion Martina Navratilova and Jana Novotna when she upset the odds to defeat 2004 champion Sharapova 6-3, 6-4 on Saturday.

"She's a grand slam champion. She has a tremendous amount of potential to go even further and achieve many great things. If she keeps playing like that and keeps her level up, she has a great game for it," said Sharapova.

Serena and Venus Williams both made early exits at Wimbledon after lengthy lay-offs while Clijsters skipped the tournament through injury.

All three are expected, however, to be serious contenders once the US Open swings around in August.

"She has a very powerful game, so it's not unexpected. When she uses that, that's her strength. That's how she wins matches, when she goes for her shots, and they're very flat."

Sharapova also has no doubts that Kvitova is probably a better player than the current crop of young stars inside the top 10, such as current world number one Caroline Wozniacki and Wimbledon semi-finalist Victoria Azarenka.

"I think she's a much more powerful hitter, she has bigger strokes, and I would say probably a better serve," said Sharapova.

Kvitova, playing in her first grand slam final, never allowed Sharapova to settle and broke the Russian five times.

The Czech girl, who made the semi-finals in 2010, was broken three times herself but she played freely, making the most of being the only left-handed player in the top 20.

Sharapova, who had been bidding for a fourth grand slam crown, admitted that facing a left-handed player posed particular challenges.

"She used that to her advantage a lot. There are a lot more righties on the tour than lefties," said the Russian.

"She was hitting really powerful and hitting winners from all over the court. She made a defensive shot into an offensive one. I think she was just more aggressive, hit deeper and harder, and got the advantage in the points.

"In all, she performed incredible. Sometimes when you don't know what to expect and you don't know how you're going to feel, sometimes you play your best because you have that feeling of nothing to lose. She went for it."